Our client is a major defence and aerospace company.

Make sure to apply quickly in order to maximise your chances of being considered for an interview Read the complete job description below.
Date Posted:
2026-08-21
Country:
United Kingdom
Location:
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Position Role Type:
Onsite
Orbital Analyst
Location: High Wycombe
Permanent
Benefits:
£: Competitive salary
Contributory Pension Scheme (up to 10.5% company contribution)
6 times salary Life Assurance with pension
25 days holiday (increasing with service) + statutory public holidays, plus opportunity to buy and sell up to 5 days (37hr)
Company bonus scheme (discretionary)
Flexible Benefits scheme with extensive salary sacrifice schemes, including Health Cashplan, Dental, and Cycle to Work amongst others
Enhanced sick pay
Enhanced family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity & shared parental leave
Work Culture
37hr working week, although hours may vary depending on role, job requirement or site-specific arrangements.
Early 1.30pm finish Friday, start your weekend early!
Remote, hybrid and site based working opportunities, dependant on your needs and the requirements of the role.
Up to 5 paid days volunteering each year.
Flexible working culture focused on output, with more formal flexible working arrangements on request (assessed subject to role) - please highlight any requests to the Talent Acquisition team.
About us
We take immense pride in being a leader in defence and aerospace technology. As an employer, we are dedicated to fuelling innovation, nurturing talent, and fostering a culture of excellence.
As a leading defence and aerospace company operating across the United Kingdom, our client helps to solve our customers toughest challenges. We are a major supplier to the UK government and customers around the globe, providing defence solutions across all domains: land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. We also provide digital and training transformation solutions to commercial and military customers.
With circa 2000 employees and major facilities operating throughout the UK including Broughton (Wales), Livingston and Glenrothes (Scotland), and Harlow, Gloucester, and Manchester (England); we are committed to investing in British careers and technology development.
We have been involved in spaceflight since the world first set its eyes on the final frontier, with our client radar transmitting Neil Armstrongs famous One small step for man message. As our clients Space business continues to grow, we offer considerable expertise in Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Surveillance & Tracking (SST), Policy, Risk Management, Orbital Analytics, and Operations
Role & Responsibilities
Our NORSS team, are looking for an Orbital Analyst to work within its operational Orbital Analyst team, performing Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) duties, to support the safety of civil and commercial satellite operations. Working with both national and international government stakeholders, the Orbital Analyst will be responsible for monitoring UK-licenced objects and critical spacecraft and providing timely technical analysis and outputs to support the decision making of key stakeholders.
This role sits within our clients Space & Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission area and will report to our NORSS Orbital Analyst Operations Lead.
This role involves working at an operational Orbital Analyst centre where day to day duties include but are not limited to; ensuring the safety of UK-licenced and critical spacecraft involved in high-interest events by monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on key space events (such as re-entering objects, collision avoidance activities and fragmentations of objects). This role will also provide the opportunity to develop new astrodynamics software capabilities and analytical tools in support of UK led Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) programmes.
An understanding of astrodynamics and SSA/SST/SDA topics will be required for this role, and the successful candidate will be expected to have programming experience.
This role can either be based from RAF High Wycombe or home with the ability to commute to RAF High Wycombe. Additionally, the successful candidate will occasionally need to travel across the UK to support business and customer needs.
Responsibilities
As our Orbital Analyst, you will lead and provide technical expertise on Customer programmes, internal Research and Development projects, and contribute to the capture of future opportunities by means of bid-writing and architecting technical solutions in the realm of SDA.
You will be expected to lead and coordinate the development of SDA/SSA tools and capabilities and ensure the implementation of operational processes, procedures and systems.
The successful candidate will lead on defining the technical and security requirements, along with the performance standards necessary to integrate new SDA sensors into the current UK network.
You will be expected to support customers and partner organisations with technical advice related to the continuing evolution of commercial and government SDA capabilities including infrastructure, software and human assets.
This role will present the opportunity to support a variety of customers in the UK space industry and wider organisations in technical engagement with global partners and institutions in respect to SDA.
Required experience
Relevant experience in the space industry focused on Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST), Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and/or space systems with an understanding of Space Weather, SSA and SST modelling and analysis.
Understanding of software development lifecycles, workflow procedures and architectures to design, develop, test and validate bespoke SSA tools for both internal and external projects.
Excellent communication skills (written and oral), to articulate and communicate technical detail clearly and concisely with colleagues, customers and partner organisations at all levels. Able to prepare detailed reports and present where necessary.
Able to work effectively and with initiative both independently and as part of a team in a way that is collaborative and adaptable.
Broad understanding and experience in data analysis and analytical software utilisation.
Experience in the development of automated scripts and/or simple software products.
Effective time management and capable of managing multiple work streams.
Willing and eligible to hold SC security clearance and obtain DV clearance if required.
A bachelors degree in a relevant field (physics, mathematics, engineering or science).
Desirable experience
Extensive experience in working in the SDA/SSA/SST space domain and expertise in conducting collision avoidance analysis, orbit determination, fragmentation and re-entry analysis in an operational setting.
Demonstrable technical expertise in the technical capability and tasking of sensors providing data to support operational collision avoidance, orbit determination, fragmentation and re-entry analysis across all orbital regimes. Expertise should include demonstrable experience of radar, optical and laser ranging systems.
Technical understanding of the end-to-end chain of ground-based and space-based SST sensor development.
Confident in providing technical demonstrations of capabilities to both internal and external parties.
Capable of leading a team effectively and professionally to deliver results.
A strong understanding of celestial mechanics, astrodynamics and atmospheric physics.
Skilled in one or more of the following programming languages: Fortran, C/C++, Java, Matlab, Python, SQL, Java-script. Experienced in the development and utilisation of SST/SSA related computer simulations.
Its parent company adheres to the principles of equal employment. xrexnqw All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
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Its parent company adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
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